Silent Moments
by AnemoneMiho
Summary: Heather Conway's life is dull and lonely. But when her boss sends her to Dewford Town for a delivery, things are about to get shaken up. StevenxOC


Silent Moments

I walked to work today. Not because I wanted fresh air or exercise or anything of that sort. You see, normally, I'd take the magnet train that was stationed a mere five minutes from my house in order to reach my weekly destination. However, as of last Saturday, a notice had been posted up stating that the train was in need of repairs and would not be running until next Thursday. That meant eight days of walking to work. Mind you, the Pokemart was not all that far away if you thought about it—if I avoided areas of high traffic, I could get there fairly easily within 20 minutes or so—but you had to consider all the things I had to bring along with me to work.

And by things, I mean Pokemon.

You'd think that a few Pokemon would be nothing to handle, right? **Wrong. **

First of all, the five Pokemon that were required to tag along with me on my journey to the local Pokemart were quite troublesome. Three of them were Slakoth and they, as you all hopefully know, are not meant to be agile or quick. In fact, they often fell asleep crossing the street and I'd have to run back and drag them along before we got run over by a truck or something of the sort. Because of their speed, or rather, lack of, I had to wake up at six every morning in order to regulate the time difference. The other two Pokemon were Zangoose which, in contrast, always were ahead of me and I would have much trouble keeping the pair in my sight. There were a few times where I had lost them and they ended up causing a great deal of panic amongst the citizens of Oldale Town.

Secondly, I address the seemingly possible solution to the first problem. I was **not **allowed to put these Pokemon in their Poke Balls (or rather, their Luxury Balls) which was a source of great irritation for me. After all, their owner (who was also my roommate—she'd gone to the Johto region to visit family, and thus, I was subjected to the torture of babysitting her odd choices in Pokemon) spoilt them senseless and the Pokemon seemed to regard their circular habitats with disdain. If I ever even whispered the word 'return', the Zangoose would immediately glare at me while the Slakoth took their time and slowly rolled their eyes.

If they weren't Jacklyn's Pokemon, I would've just dumped them all in a sewer or something by now.

Anyways, going back to the original topic of walking to work, today's walk had gone by rather smoothly, other than a small mishap concerning one of the Zangoose and a trash can. I had reached my destination at 6: 54, six minutes before my shift. I was always the first one here so I had a key of my own. I stepped into the small building and ushered my five companions (read: burdens) in as well. I didn't need one of them getting lost and then me being verbally abused by Jacklyn for my carelessness.

I began setting up the shop for opening time while the Pokemon sat themselves down on the couch by the entrance. Lucky for me, once they got into the Pokemart, they always calmed down because there was nothing of much interest to distract them. They pretty much blended in with the background.

I started the daily routine of re-stocking the shelves. This technically was supposed to be Penny's job as she had the last shift each day but she was a forgetful girl and rarely were the shelves filled as they should've been when I walked in the next morning. Still, she was a nice girl and everyone here at the Pokemart forgave her for her poor memory.

After I was sure that everything was in its rightful place, I made my way over to the cashier. With the push of a button, the bottom compartment slid out and I retrieved my nametag. It was printed on an ugly shade of yellow and 'Heather Conway' was scribbled on it with black ink. My handwriting wasn't the neatest but it was legible in the least. I clipped the tag onto my uniform.

I glanced at the orange Torchic clock situated on the wall across from me. I still had two minutes until my shift officially began and four hours before any of my co-workers joined me. It was also quite unlikely that any customers would be drifting in at this time in the morning. Thus, my hours were often spent in silence and solitude, except for the Slakoth and Zangoose. But they didn't count. It wasn't as if they could speak human.

Already, my fingers were tapping a little drum solo on the countertop. One of the Zangoose began chirping a little song in response but it clashed badly with the rhythm and the Pokemon quieted down. I was quite bored, to tell the truth. It's not hard when you have nothing to do, really. It would be nice if I had a companion of some sort who was not Jacklyn's Pokemon.

Maybe if I had my own Pokemon, my life would be a little livelier. My mother had always been a bit of a control-freak and refused to let me get my own Pokemon in fear that I would jump onto the nearest ship and sail off for my Pokemon journey, leaving her all alone. I didn't blame her—I was quite the energetic child when I was ten. Of course, I had bawled and wailed in protest but my efforts were fruitless. When I turned fourteen, I realized there was no way my mom would ever permit me to get a Pokemon and my endeavours came to a halt. Personality-wise, I calmed down and became more independent. I was able to persuade my mom to let me move to Hoenn and settle down by myself on the condition that I visited her every year at Christmas.

So here I was. Lonely as ever.


End file.
